Opposites Attract
by Indifferently Different
Summary: Jacob finally finds his One True Love. It really is too bad that he can't stand the gi- uh, guy? And, unfortunately, he's not the only one. Jacob/Edward; various minor pairings. Imprint!fic. Slash.
1. You've GOT To Be Kidding Me

**You've GOT To Be Kidding Me.**

I really hadn't expected it. Never saw it coming. Completely caught off-guard. But, _damn._

The others said Imprinting was the best thing that could ever happen to you. For both you and your, erm, partner. So, you know, I'd sort of really expected to have the experience of a lifetime. Too bad I wasn't disappointed.

Of course, I'd heard about Edward Cullen before I'd met him. The taboo of his name had made him more mysterious than ever. And then, when Bella - of all the people I knew, it had to be _her _- told me she'd started dating him, I was at my wits end to see this guy for real. In the fle- uh, granite skin.

The day it happened was a relatively normal day in Washington- i.e., overcast and oh-_so_-toasty. It had been weeks since I'd last seen Bella, and I was going out of my mind with longing. She'd claimed that exams were keeping her at home, so I didn't really want to disturb her, truth or not. But Sam had "suggested" (read: Alpha commanded) that I pop over, simply because he was so tired of "hearing" me whine about it. Ha. Poor dog. I'm sure if he'd only known what was coming next, I would've been forcibly restrained to La Push for the rest of my miserable lif- that is, eternal duration of my existence.

As I crossed the border leaving La Push on my bike, I found myself wondering self-conciously if I should've called first. What if _he_was there? Bella hadn't mentioned anything about his aversion to wolves, but I figured it couldn't possibly be worse than our hatred for his kind.

Plus, she was kinda sensitive about that sort of stuff.

As I drew closer to her neighborhood, a piercingly sweet burn began filtering through my sensitive nostrils. Along with it came a sudden full-body tingle, obviously an instinctive wolf response to the sickening smell. Ugh. Bloodsuckers _reeked._

I pulled up to her vaguely familiar house, eyeing the shiny silver Volvo parked in the drive beside Bella's truck. It was all for show of course, both our vehicles. Suspicious questions would have come from Charlie if Cullen or I had gotten here without means of transport. Well, Cullen, anyways.

Idling on the bike against the curb, I saw a curtain twitch and heard low murmuring from inside the house. I wondered, as I cut the engine, would he come out or she?

My question was not long unanswered. After a few more seconds of fierce muttering, the white door opened and Bella stepped out, pushing forward the net screen and closing both doors behind her. I climbed off the bike as she walked briskly toward me, tucking strands of hair behind her ears, a half-guilty expression on her face.

"Jacob," she greeted, and I easily picked up the forced enthusiasm in her voice. Odd. "Um. What are you doing here?"

"Ouch." I mock-stabbed myself in the chest, sighing dramatically. "And here I thought you'd be dying to see me."

She took a step back, looking hurt. "Jake! Of course I am!" She meant it this time, and she hugged me tightly to get her point across. I wrinkled my nose even as my skin still tingled. She really stank. "It's just..." she mumbled into my chest, "I wasn't expecting you, not at all."

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" I questioned, grinning widely down at her. "The party can finally begin!"

Bella looked uncomfortable. I frowned, letting her go.

"Did I miss something, Bells?"

She bit her lip, shaking her head. "It's just not exactly good timing," she whispered, and her eyes darted almost imperceptibly to his car. Well, _d'uh._

"Oh." My frown deepened. "I see. You're dumping me for the leech."

I heard him snort and sent a meaningful glare at the window where I knew he stood behind a curtain, observing us calmly. My skin itched pointedly.

"Jake... It's not like that. I don't- he doesn't... I just-"

"- don't think we'll get along very well. Is that it?"

She nodded mutely. I don't quite remember if I had become sub-consciously aware of the strange pull before, but I had definitely felt it then. Starting out as as the tingle, then developing into the itch and then the subtle tugging, the invisible force lured me forward. We had arrived at the steps, and I glanced again at the window, this time a bit nervous. Was he doing this? Did he have some sort of _other _freaky power besides his little vampire extras? Summoning, perhaps?

The pull was struggling determinedly at my legs now, and I stumbled forward involuntarily, trying to play it off as a meaningful trip towards the closed door.

"I want to meet him," I said suddenly, and Bella looked at me, surprised. He snarled inside and I shot the curtain another annoyed glare.

"You do?" The question sounded disbelievingly hesitant, but Bella's voice trembled with what I hoped was suppressed excitement.

"Yeah, sure," I grinned, leaning against the door frame to play off my weak legs. "I mean, I know he stinks, but I can deal."

The smile that lit up her face nearly split me in two. "Okay, okay. Hold on. Let me just tell him."

_You don't need to, _I almost told her, _he can hear every word we're saying,_ but she was already through the second door.

I was examining my nails with mild anxiety as they ground into the wood of Bella's door frame when I heard it.

"Why are you really here, Jacob?"

I jumped, nearly falling over in surprise, swivelling to find the perpetrator, the owner of that sinfully smooth velvet voice. "What the hell? Who the hell said that?" I decided - I was going crazy. Wasn't it a bit soon? I still had the rest of, well, forever to struggle through.

"You're not going crazy."

_What. The Fuck._

"Are you always this obscene?"

I took a few deep breaths to steady myself - I still wasn't used to these damn sensitive ears - and turned back to Bella as she opened the door. She had stepped back to let me in, and as soon I had stepped over the threshold, I had regretted my decision so badly, it hurt. I mean, literally. Yearning hit me so hard in the chest, I actually staggered back a few feet before the pull dragged me forward again.

I followed it involuntarily, ignoring Bella's confused cries as I span round the hallway corner and practically ran across the small kitchen, tripping over my own feet in my haste. What in hell's name was happening!?

Bella shared the same opinion. "Jacob, what the hell!?" Bella shrieked, from somewhere behind me.

"I don't know!" I yelled back as I hurtled into the living room. "I don't know what the fuck is going-"

And then I'd suddenly stopped. And I'd looked up and seen him. Tall, pale, some strange colored hair. Completely still. The only source of movement was the delicate white curtain, rising and falling around him like snow as he stared out of the window.

I could smell Bella behind me, standing there, pick up the fear and anxiety rolling off her in waves.

Then, I could smell him, and every so often, his scent would hit me - hard - in short, strong whiffs as the breeze softly blew.

I swallowed, my heart beating ridiculously fast as I watched him. And then he turned around.

* * *

**A/N: Well?**

**Nothing much has changed. Still have exams. Still have a ridiculous amount of studying to do. Still not sure if I can update frequently.**

**But I CAN update. :] I just don't know when. I don't abandon stories.**

**I'll try my best to update as I feel best, and I won't lie, reviews will spur me onward :D**

**Until then, thankyou for your continued support and I really do enjoy checking the hits on my stories! Especially the reviews (HINT.).**

**- I.D.**


	2. Please Tell Me I'm Still Dreaming

**Please Tell Me I'm Still Dreaming.**

Hey.

He glances up at me from his relaxed lounging by the riverside - as if he hasn't been smelling me from miles off, been hearing my obsessive thoughts from metres away, been feeling my presence since the moment I'd started running - and I melt.

As in, all coherent thought goes to mush.

My mind probably looksfeelssounds something like: Edward fuepqwpqpksd Edward kakwkeoewjnr Edward.

He smiles. My knees wobble unsteadily- but I'm still standing.

It's a start.

In a movement nearly too fast for my human eyes to see, he moves from by the river to place a startlingly cold hand on my still-sweating shoulder. My womb leaps for joy.

Just kidding. (Not.)

He smiles again as he slides his hand slowly up my neck and traces my jaw. He leans forward, nose grazing my neck - I shudder - and inhales deeply - he shudders - and then leans back, swallowing audibly, his darkening topaz eyes never leaving mine.

Wait- darkening topaz?

I struggle to pull myself out of the haze that his scent creates, and reluctantly step away from his touch.

He tries to cradle my jaw again, but I move out of his reach. "What's wrong with your eyes?" I ask aloud to emphasize my concern, my eyes narrowing. "They look strange. Kinda. . . Not golden."

He lets out a short laugh, a little too empty for my liking, and turns his head away. "I haven't hunted."

My wolf snaps to attention with a wary growl. "So. . ." I say, carefully keeping myself under control, "you're. . . _hungry_?"

**This has never happened before, **my wolf mutters, pacing.** Danger.**

Another empty laugh. "Sort of. More like starving, actually."

His eyes snap up to meet mine, nearly black and utterly terrifying. My instincts scream.

**Run. Get out of there. _Now_.**

But he seesfeelshears my thoughts and shifts almost imperceptibly into an offensive stance. I see it. I bolt.

And as I leap, phasing mid-air and taking off through the dense greenery, I feel his ice-cold hands through my layers of thick fur, his fingernails claws in my tender skin, his teeth - sharpened death - piercing my throat.

We hit the floor with a series of loud, cracking thumps, and I howl in agony.

And then I wake up.

It was a rather rude awakening I was given, now that I think about it.

No, literally. I was woken. Quite rudely. By a loud and ridiculously persistent knocking on my bedroom door.

I groaned pathetically and stuffed my head beneath a flat pillow. Maybe. . . maybe if I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep it would go away?

"Jake!'

Nope.

I clicked my heels together three times. Aaand. . .

"Jacob!"

. . .nothing. Dammit.

But as I listened to/attempted to block out the raucous shrieking of the Sleep Depriver, I realised that this shrieking sounded sorta familiar.

"Jacob!" it roared, rearing its ugly sleep depriving head, and _still_ attempting to break my door in two. "I know you're in there!"

In fact, if I listened a tad bit carefully through my flattened pillows. . . it sounded sorta like. . . like Quil, actually.

"Get the fuck up and open this fucking door before I phase on your ass and fuck you up so bad, you'll never try this shit again!"

Yup. Quil it was.

I growled and rolled over, shooting my most venomous glare at the door opposite me. "Quil," I snarled, "you better be ready to hold up that promise, because I think it's about time to return the-"

"Jake?"

I stopped halfway through my improvised threat at the gentle interjection of Embry's voice. My anger dissipated as easily as it had come, replaced by pleasant surprise. "Em?"

His soft laugh was easily picked up by my ears. But then again, everything about Embry was soft. My body was well used to having to accommodate him. Didn't _that_ sound perverted.

I scrambled out of bed to unlock the door, completely unconcerned about my slightly dishevelled state - seeing as I probably looked sexy that way, you know? As soon as I turned the lock, the door flew open and I stumbled back, letting out a surprised cry when Quil tackled me to the ground.

We wrestled for a bit, dog-like, before I overpowered Quil and straddled him, pinning his arms to his sides and fixing him with an annoyed glare. "You were saying?"

Quil growled as he squirmed uselessly below me, his expression furious. "Where the fuck have you been, Jacob? It's been, like,_ three months_!"

I rolled my eyes at him. Quil always insisted on putting exaggeration on time by converting it - incorrectly, no doubt - to Dog Years. Idle idiot. "No, Quil. It's been two weeks."

Embry stepped past us to lounge on my bed as Quil huffed indignantly, continuing to struggle. "Whatever! You've still been hiding out like a little punk since you got back from Bella's. What the hell are you trying to hide?"

Uh oh.

I swallowed a mouthful of scratchy air as I looked away from Quil and met Embry's searching gaze. I tore my eyes away- I couldn't lie to Embry.

"I. . . I had some problems," I confessed humbly to an unfamiliar brown spot on the carpet. Some problems that I really - and I mean, _really_ - didn't want the pack knowing_. _

Quill snorted. "Yeah, we figured out that part. What _I_ want to know is why you couldn't drag your human ass over to The Spot to talk with me or Senor Softy over there."

I glanced up at Embry again, but he was keeping his face carefully blank, the dog. Haha. Quil took advantage of my unfocused state and bucked up, throwing my body off-balance with his damn heavy legs and rolling on top of me.

I groaned pathetically as he dropped none-too-lightly on my crotch, his sharp fingernails digging into my abs, steadying himself.

"Get off my balls," I gasped, clawing at his chest, but he only smirked and sat down harder. I let out a tortured squeal. "Quil!"

"Tell us where you were."

I shook my head at him the best I could. "Nope."

He dug his nails in further. "Ja-cob." Clenched his legs tighter around my thighs. "Spill."

Pain trickled up to my stomach and made me nauseous. My eyes nearly fluttered shut. "N-never."

Quil growled, lifted himself - oh no, please please no - and dropped.

Miles up the coast in the quiet town of Forks, a little boy looked oddly at the sky and asked his mother about clouds, fascinated by their sudden ability to howl, however faintly.

**·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

Later that day, after Embry had forced Quil to go home because his war tactics were all epic failures ("I mean, I know it's no pain, no gain, Quil, but this is getting ridiculous."), I lay back on my bed, wincing slightly as Embry plopped down beside me.

I hurt. A lot. In all sorts of mysterious places.

Em gave me a sympathetic smile and patted my head in an attempt at comfort. "I'm sorry about Quil. He was kinda-"

"Insane?" I groaned, closing my eyes.

"-eager," Embry finished, his eyes crinkling in amusement. His hand slid down from my hair to my neck, settling around my pulse.

I shivered and opened my eyes, shifting away from his wandering fingers- my nightmare was still fresh in my mind.

The last of Em's mirth dissolved into his sudden frown. "What's wrong, Jake?"

I knew he was speaking generally, finally putting his plan in action to find out what had happened. But I just sighed deeply (it hurt) and shook my head. "I had a bad dream."

"You had a bad dream," he repeated blankly. "You haven't phased in more than two weeks because," he continued, raising an eyebrow, ". . .you had a bad dream."

"No, asswipe," I retorted, shoving him one-handedly best I could. "I'm not in the mood because I had a bad dream."

"Are you planning to tell me why you're completely avoiding my question?"

"No." I'll hide it, hide him, as long as I can.

Embry sighed, falling back onto my ever flat pillows, and he looked so damn dejected that I had to comfort him. If it had been anyone else, I probably would have - undoubtedly - kicked them (literally) off my bed and told them to go lick their wounds elsewhere.

But I had a soft spot for Em.

A bit too soft a spot.

He snuggled into my embrace, his body temperature only slightly cooler because he wasn't as hot. Haha. His slenderness reduced his body mass, and so his temperature.

"Jake. . ." Embry murmured after a while, "just tell me what's wrong. It can't be that bad. I'll understand."

I laughed because I found the situation so hilarious. Because Embry, who had been my fuck-buddy for so long and my best friend for so much longer would _not_ understand why I had Imprinted on Edward Cullen, Bloodsucker Extraordinaire and Rival For Bella's Affections. How the fuck would he understand if I didn't even understand?

"It's a lot worse than you think," I eventually muttered, my voice muffled by his hair. "So much worse. . ."

"Then tell me!" He was frustated. And a frustrated Embry was an angry Embry. "I can't help you if you won't let me, Jacob!"

"I never said I wanted your help," I snapped, and immediately, I wanted to grab back the words, or perhaps knock out Em so that he'd never remember.

He snarled, and in a fluid motion, I was pressed back into the bed with him on top of me, his hands gripping my shoulders. His narrowed eyes met mine for a quick second, and I knew exactly what he was going to do. I quickly cleared my mind of as many thoughts of Edward as I could, and then Embry was crashing down, his lips pressed to mine, his thoughts sliding over and through my mind, our emotions an overwhelming mixture of anger, sorrow, exasperation and, unfortunately(?), lust.

But mostly anger. Because he had pissed me off. How dare he fucking _rape my mind_for information? When I was sure he'd heard every swear word I knew screamed at him from inside my head, inside his head, I knocked Embry off my body, and followed the shove with a solid fist to his chin.

He let out a surprised cry of pain and quickly scrambled out of the reach of my potentially murderous fingers, clutching his bruising jaw and blinking rapidly.

I pointed one of those criminal fingers at him from across the room, and began to yell. "What the _fuck _was _that_?"

"Jacob, Jake, listen," he pleaded desperately, his brown eyes suspiciously shiny, "I didn't- I didn't want to do that, I mean- my wolf-"

"Don't give me that wolf _shit,_" I spat, knowing I was being completely hypocritical as my wolf snarled in my belly. "Just get the fuck out."

Embry looked stricken. "Jake, I'm sorry! I didn't, I'm sorr-"

"_Get. The fuck. Out._"

He sent me one more despairing look and exited the room, pulling the door behind him quietly. "Goodbye, Jake."

I ignored him, and I ignored Edward and I ignored the wolf, but half a minute of angry pacing later, when the reality of what I'd done crashed down on me, I ran outside and called his name.

I already knew it was too late.

**·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

The next time Embry phased, there was a silent moment pregnant with confusion. Embry? Angry?

As he pounded through the forest, Embry caught their thoughts.

**?**

**?**

**?**

**Embry, what's wrong?** Seth finally asked, and there was another long silence as everyone felt the emotions that Embry was trying desperately to run off.

Anger. Hurt. Anger. Frustration. Sadness. Hurt. Disappointment. Anger. Hurt.

Seth yelped his concern and changed direction along with Jared to follow Embry.

Embry continued to shuffle through his feelings and then began to recount the somewhat jerkily jointed memory of his fiasco of an afternoon.

They Listened as he Showed them how long they had tried to get in the room, showed them how sick Jacob looked - **As if he's stopped eating, or something**, Paul muttered - and Quil's blunders of methods.

Then his mind blurred as he tried to forget, but that only made the images Show faster.

Jacob rejecting him. Jacob pulling him closer. Jacob denying him answers again and again. Jacob closing his eyes as Embry kissed him. Then Jacob hurting him. More than he would ever know.

Seth ran faster.

Then a vivid swirl of Jacob's thoughts- thoughts that had been transferred when the lips of the two werewolves had met: faces streaked by in quick succession- Bella. Embry. Edward.

**Edward?** Paul questioned suddenly, pulling the image and Showing it again. **That's Bella's leech, right?**

**Why was he thinking of Edward?** came Leah's puzzled thought. **The way he talks about him, you'd think that guy was his worst enemy.**

**Yeah, what's up with that? **Jared added, stopping to lap some water from the river.

Embry sent Indifference.

**Embry**, Sam finally said. **Did you find out anything else? Did he give you any more information? Any clues?**

**No.**

Embry Showed the images of Bella and Edward once more, began to howl, and then his presence disappeared.

He had phased back.

**Find him**, Sam said quietly to the subdued pack. **Find him and bring him home.**

* * *

**A/N: The fact that I have my Physics CXC Paper II final tomorrow, only halfway through studying and posting this instead is a true example of how much I love you guys. **

**I'm actually quite suprised by how much more responsive Twilight readers are as compared to Harry Potter readers. You folks sure do love your slash.**

**And please, no rock throwing! I know many expected to see how Jake responded to Edward, etc, but be patient. This story has a very strange structure, but I think you'll be pleased at how things develop.**

**In the meantime, wish me luck on my finals [I had Literature all day yesterday, aced that bitch], and I'll see you when I do :)**

**Gracias para todos de las reviews! You've made me a very happy camper (I do love camping :)!**

**Review, precious darlings.**

**xx**

**-I.D.**


	3. Life Comes At You Fast And Then It Hits

**Life Comes At You Fast. And Then It Hits You. Hard. In The Balls.**

**-x-x-x-**

Even if I could have described the feeling any better, could have Showed how it felt, painted masterpieces, or composed the most breath-taking musical pieces, talked for hours in the most charismatic way, acted it all out again and again, hand-written a mile-long epistle. . .

Nothing, and I seriously mean _nothing_ would have done any sort of justice to the way I'd felt - the way my universe had been _shaken_ - the moment Edward Cullen had met my gaze.

I'd gasped for breath as emotions flooded through me, my eyes wide, locked with his alarmed amber stare, barely able to discern the feelings smashing inconsiderately through my mind, let alone the ones that had been flashing across his eyes almost as fast.

And then I'd snapped my eyes away from his for a second - two - to rove up and down and all over his magnificent body, from the tips of his expensive looking leather shoes up those long long long legs across that steady firm chest down to the tips of his fingers to his shiny fingernails back up his defined arms lightly muscled lean and finally to the pale column of his throat and the urge to claim it to mark it was so strong _so strong_ and his strange rusty hair fell in waves in loose wild curls and framed his face- his beautiful face, made angelic by the innocence of surprise. Those oddly pink lips against the white of his face, so so white, and his pointy nose and his cheekbones and his hairy eyebrows and oh his eyes. His eyes.

They made me throb. In a _good_ way (a reeeaaally good way). I sucked in a shuddering breath, my body shaking like I. . . I- I and, holy _shit_, I was about to phase. Inside Bella's house. Bella.

Behind me I had been able to hear her faint shrieking, somewhere in the back of my mind, been subconsciously able to pick up a faint whiff of the fear rolling off her, trying desperately to crawl out of this frightening haze, this spell, this trance, my hand reaching out to grip the back of the couch in futile attempt to steady myself-

"Stop."

_What the fuck does he think I'm trying to do? _I'd spat silently, unable to speak, glaring venomously, anger joining the confusion that was my mental whirlpool. The room had spun sickeningly around me, and the nausea (butterflies) had given me enough leeway to stumble away from the leech and out to the backyard where I'd doubled over, one hand clutching my dancing stomach, the other shoving my longer-than-usual hair back and out of my face.

And then Bella had been beside me, lovely, beautiful Bella, and I'd tried my hardest to stare into her eyes and feel the same way I just had, the way I felt now, and goddamit, why wouldn't it _work_? And then my eyes had stung with more than just watery irritance.

Then he'd been there, behind us- I'd been able to feel his presence, pulling me, tugging me to turn around. Bella was pleading with me, with him, and I stood straight and turned around, and he was right there, barely a foot of green grass between us.

And then the motherfucker had met my eyes, reached out - fingers splayed, pausing, hesitating only once - and he'd touched me.

Biggest. Mistake. Of his life (or existence or whatever).

It took my breath away. His cold fingers, his touch. And I hated it.

And after I had inhaled as much oxygen as I possibly could (my lungs were having a hard time), I'd knocked his freezing hand off my extra-overheated shoulder and punched him in the face.

It'd hurt like fuck.

But it'd hurt him too. I had been able to see it on his face, the shock, the sheer surprise, the strange, terrified longing for more - that one quickly and carefully disappeared -, and worse, I could feel it! _I could feel it_. Every expression that I'd seen was just a delayed, dimmer version of each one I'd briefly felt.

It was like he was a part of the pack! Like I could see into his mind and he into mine! Like we shared some sort of freaky-ass bond! Like he was my soul mate (_hell_ no.) and like I had-

Fuck. Oh _fuck_.

Like. . .

. . .like I had Imprinted.

**-x-x-x-**

I can easily remember the first time I'd seen Embry as more than just a pack brother.

Well, each one of them meant something more - or less, in Paul's case - to me than just an inconvenient bond. I knew that. But Embry was just different.

They all knew I was bisexual. It wasn't something I could hide, not with the bond, and in all honesty, I doubt I would have hidden it long, once I'd figured myself out. The pack was tight like that. They didn't exactly enjoy the subconscious recounts of highlights of certain. . . tussles of mine, but they were more than civil about it, and that was all I needed.

Then Bella had shown up. And I knew, whether I wanted to or not, that all of them would prefer my naughty sexcapades over my Bella drama - obsession - any day.

They wished I would get over her. All of them. So badly.

And Embry, who was half-white and half-Native-Indian, Embry with his weird wavy hair, and his lean body and his kind light brown eyes, Embry, who was different, smaller, who needed protection- Embry reminded me far too much of a girl. A certain girl.

Embry, holding this sway over me with his taunting hips and his easy smile, Embry who could be both boy and girl and androgynous and so wonderfully understanding and my best friend- it had to be him.

Once I had sorted myself out, had formulated a plan, while Embry was away on a visit to his Aunt Leina in the city for his birthday, I was ready to go. The pack was with me.

Because of course they had Heard what I was trying to hide, then been surprised and curious and excited, and we fed off each other, off this energy, and of_ course_ I'd let them help me with my plan, because they wanted it, and I wanted it, and we were a group, a team, a singular efficient unit.

And they were curious, as wolves were, as dogs were, and in the pack, _things_ happened. We were a bunch of horny teenagers- raging, filled to the brim with growth and development hormones, changing every day into bigger, stronger, wolves, into beings with more fantastic, even more irresistible human bodies, and so what could you expect? We wanted it. We wanted sex. A _lot_.

And so it was only natural, we thought, that we interacted the way we did, with our touching and our eyes and our body language, the way our wolves did. Only natural to feel physical attraction persons who were spewing just as many goddamn pheromones as you were. Only natural when a "chaste" liplock with Jared lasted a little too long, went a bit too deep, left him feeling guilty for a few seconds about Kim. Only natural when we all stared at Leah's naked form as she stretched for us, her slanted eyes burning as she flaunted for her boys. Only natural when we all wanted Sam, unconsciously - inevitably - Sam with his power over us, our Alpha, our leader, with his slow, soft, dizzying kisses and his soothing thoughts. . .

And Embry.

So he finally came home, and after dropping his stuff by his mom, went straight to Sam-and-Emily's, as Sam had known he would - **He'll be desperate to phase and he'll come to me.** They phased and went running, just Sam and Em, because Sam could shield his thoughts a bit now, he'd told us, he would be able to keep it secret, and the plan continued perfectly.

The rest of the pack converged as quickly as possible at Sam-and-Emily's to decorate. Sam had Shown us the image of the completed room over and over, insisting that we would know exactly what to do when the time came.

As usual, Sam was right.

While he kept Embry away from the house, we decorated, and Em(ily) kept us well occupied with her instructions and her warnings about the cake (that cake had been damn good).

**Hide when you hear me howl**, Sam had instructed, and then suddenly, the signal went off.

We dashed quickly to our respective places, and the lights went out. A few seconds later, Sam was walking through the door, Embry on his heels.

"Go turn on that light over there," Sam muttered, moving inconspicuously to his own place.

Embry flipped the switch and nearly had a heart attack when we sprung out and group-piled him to the floor. Ha. With that heart? I only wish.

It was a good party, all in all. Enough pizza, enough drinks, bang good cake. We'd made sure to spike the beverages with just enough alcohol- we would be tipsy, but we would be conscious of our actions. Conscious enough, anyway.

And when that pleasant buzz had kicked in, that mellowing out, we'd sprawled out to play a favorite game of ours- Seven Minutes in Emily's Linen Closet.

Of course, it had been a complete violation of the rules when I pulled out Paul's name and announced Embry's instead. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

The pack smirked. Embry blushed.

I stood and pulled him into the tiny room, ignoring the jeers and the catcalls. Idiots. The door was pushed closed behind me. And then it was locked. And then it was locked again. And then there was this loud, grumbling, creaking sound and a muffled crash as the fuckers put something huge against the door.

Wow. They were seriously serious.

I glanced back at Embry to see his eyes wide with disbelief, his mouth slightly slack. It made me laugh.

My laugh brought his attention back to me. I trailed off nervously.

The air was still and musty and awkward in the cupboard. Embry fingered a piece of white cloth on a shelf near his shoulder. I cleared my throat quietly.

"So. . ." he mumbled.

I glanced at him. He was staring determinedly at the dangly string between his fingers. "So. . ?" I questioned hesitantly.

The silence was heavy with the absence of his reply. Shit. What had I been thinking? How could I have thought this could possibly work? I didn't know if Embry was willing to give up our friendship for this.

But Embry _didn't know_ all that. All he knew was that he'd been the unfortunate (?) luck of the draw. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, I repeated in my head. My confidence soared back to its old peak and settled in comfortably.

I stepped forward until I could reach out and place my hand above his fidgeting one. Its movements stilled immediately.

"So?" I asked again, watching his face as I trailed my hand up his arm, across his slightly cooler skin. His muscles jumped beneath my fingertips.

He clenched the sheet tightly as my hand reached the juncture of his shoulder and his neck. His pulse hammered rapidly. I swallowed in hopeful anticipation.

Then I stepped closer. There was barely an inch between us. Wind-swept strands of his wispy hair tickled my lips and his breathing was a cool breeze against my collarbone.

"Jake," he breathed, as I rubbed my thumb in slow circles against his thrumming neck. Damn. He was so hot. "What are you. . .?"

His voice faded away as I closed the distance between us easily. I could feel his body pressed against mine, swaying slightly. The tiny room felt filled up with heat and tension. His arm dropped to his side as I tilted his chin up to face me. "Em," I murmured. "Look at me."

He raised his eyes slowly and looked up at me through his long lashes and I held back a groan. His light brown eyes had darkened, deep brown pools of lust and arousal and dawning comprehension. Seductive little bitch.

"I- Jake." He lifted his hand to touch my face- his small hand, tracing over my eyebrows and my half-shut eyes and my big nose and my cheekbones and. . . my lips. "This is-"

Then the delightful, irresistible, shiver-inducing scent of his arousal hit me like a ton of bricks and I growled as I ripped his hand from my face and pushed him up against the one bare wall.

He gasped as he hit it, his eyes dilating as his scrambling hands found purchase in my thin vest, just a tiny near inaudible intake of breath, and I lost it.

Those (thirty-)seven minutes went by quite pleasantly, by the way.

**-x-x-x-**

The pack acted as a singular unit. Always.

When one wanted something, the pack worked for it. And when everyone wanted the same thing, well. . . there was no stopping us.

Except I wasn't included in "us" anymore. Not when it was Them VS Me. I wouldn't know until we got past/didn't get past this obstacle. You know that grande, super-humongous, shit-that's-a-big-one, hey-that-sorta-looks-like-our-mortal-enemy obstacle? Yeah, that one.

I stood no chance. Not against the combined power of the pack. We were like Teen Titans. Except we were all Beast Boy. And, uh, could only turn into wolves. Yeah, okay, crappy analogy.

They would find out- I knew it and they knew it. It was only a matter of how and when.

But I needed to see him. Real bad and real soon.

I could feel my health deteriorating slowly but surely, felt the stares of my classmates, heard their whispers, saw their pitying glances.

I didn't give a flying upside-down fuck about them.

My wolf would continue to heal me as best he could, but if I was hardly eating, hardly sleeping, what could he use? He would try, but there was only so much he could do without the masses of nutrients and the hours of sleep my shape-shifting body desperately needed.

And he wanted Edward. _Real_ bad and real- well, _now_.

I hadn't seen him since that day, not since I'd been up to see Bella three weekends ago. She'd called, and I'd tried to talk to her the way I used to, but all I could concentrate on while she talked - and talked and talked - was Edward. Edward with her. Her with Edward. She being with him instead of me, and more importantly, him being with her and not with me.

It was unhealthy, this Imprinting. Becoming completely obsessed with a person in literally the blink of an eye. I understood completely why Sam had hated it at first. What if Bella found out I no longer held her as the most important person in my life? How would Embry feel if I told him I no longer needed him? No- those were both lies. For now. But how on earth would I sort it all out once the time came for Life-Changing Decisions? I wished I could talk to Sam desperately- he would know what to do.

Then again, I didn't know how Edward felt about any of this. His presence was barely there- a faint, dim light in the back of my darkening mind. What if he didn't feel it? What if this was just another one-sided unrequited pining-hopelessly thing? I couldn't do it again. My poor heart couldn't bear it. Would he give up Bella for me?

Would _I _give up Bella for me? Embry for Bella? Bella for Edward?

Edward for anyone?

**-x-x-x-**

It was Sam, in the end, who caught me. So predictable.

I'd dodged the others, but Sam was Sam. I couldn't have avoided him if I wanted to. He was sneaky like Spiderman.

And now he was here, leaning casually against a tree in all his naked splendour, his short hair blowing slightly in the twilight breeze, his eyes bright from his recent phasing.

He stood and watched me.

I was freaking the fuck out.

Then he said, nonchalant as ever, "The others have phased. They're waiting."

Good evening to you too, I thought bitterly, and I swallowed and nodded, but I was freaking out. I mean, what the hell was I supposed to do if he kissed me? He would know everything. And then he would phase, and so would everyone else and they'd hate me forever. And I knew it would be forever because the Cullens would never leave, and if they didn't leave, we would stay wolfy. And they couldn't, wouldn't leave- now, not when I needed him so badly, they wouldn't, those blood-sucking motherfuckers had better stay.

"What-" I began, but my mouth was dry, my throat crackly from disuse. "What exactly are they waiting for?"

Sam stared at me for a long time. He did that a lot. Then he closed his eyes. "You have to phase, Jake."

No no please no. I panicked. "Why the hell do you people want me to phase so badly, anyway? I'm not hiding anything!"

Sam smiled wistfully, sadly, slowly opening an eye to look at me again. "I never said you were."

Then he pushed off his tree and came toward me slowly, bracing one arm against my tree. Fuck. He was so close. I could feel his heat. "You're unwell, Jake." I swallowed, my teeth biting into my bottom lip. "Your wolf is unwell. I can't bear to see you like this. The guilt is _killing_ me. I need you to phase."

"Sam," I pleaded, already shaking. My Alpha's presence was already too much for my poor wolf to take. "Please."

"Jake," he warned, a quiet, low rumbling in his chest.

"I can't- _no_, Sam, you. . ." I let out a shuddering breath. My chest was constricting- it hurt so bad. "You don't understand-" I would lose them all. All of them. "I can't_ do_ this, Sam- it's so fucking messed up-" I held back tears, I gripped my knees as I panted and shook. "No no no no-"

And then what felt like seconds and centuries later, Sam was kneeling above me with his hands on my shoulders and he was saying something but it was faint and somewhere off, distant, and I didn't know when the last time I'd eaten was - my empty stomach burned - and then my face was stinging like fuck, _ow_. And I tried to surface, I really freaking tried, and Sam's hand was slapping my face again and there was this big-ass_ whooooosh_.

"Jake," he was saying, and I could hear him clearly now. "Jacob."

"Sam," I panted, more than a little winded. "What the hell just happened?"

"I'm not sure, Jake," he muttered, eyes running over me in a quick physical check, "but I'm going to find out."

Then he turned to me and met my gaze full on. "Jacob-" he began in a firm voice, and fuck it all, I was screwed. Chopped and screwed. "**Phase** **now**."

I had no choice. My wolf barked happily as Sam stepped away and phased back before my own sharpening eyes. I groaned as my muscles, my bones shifted involuntarily, felt my fur bursting out of my skin, heat engulfing my shaking, trembling, unhealthy body.

It was done. In a few short seconds, I became aware in my mind and to everyone else. And then my thoughts Showed.

**Oh shit**, I breathed shakily.

It was eerily freakily quiet for the shortest, _tiniest_ fragment of a second. I was too terrified- my fright was making more and more Show. I tried to relax, to calm myself down, but it was too late, the images and the thoughts and the memories Showed and Showed, flashing by in rapid succession, branding onto each of their minds, until-

**Jacob**_**, **_Paul gasped, and for once in his life, he was speechless.**What the **_**fuck**_**?**

Chaos ensued.

* * *

**A/N: So. There was a lovely chapter filled with Packtion and Jake/Embry. Mmm. **

**I'm sorry that I've been unresponsive to your reviews- by the time you read this, I will have. I've just been so busy lately, between being Yearbook Editor, on the Prom Committee and exams. Horrid.**

**And today is my one-year anniversary with my boyfriend, Jesse. He had an exam this morning, and then we wagged school from about 11 this morning and spent the whole day together. We had. . . a lot of fun. Har har. **

**He's going off to England in a month for college + uni. I don't know what I'll do. :(**

**Enough of my ridiculously gay whining. I hope you enjoyed this chappie, and I'll get the next one done when I've finished my finals, so maybe in the next couple of weeks. Maybe.**

**THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWSSS! I love them all. Like little Hershey's kisses. So go do it again.**

**Because reviews make me happier than a Jesse in my bed (I'm lying, but it's pretty damn close).**

**I am pimping out the following stories, because they make me throb (in the nether regions):**

**- A Very Underestimated Emotion, by Rockstorm. AMAZING.**

**- Le Château du Jardin Paradis, by brent360. Freaking HOT.**

**- Underneath, by newssodark. STEAMY smut, wonderful plot, and so so heartwrenching.**

**Have fun, darlings.**

**xx**

**-I.D.**


	4. So Apparently, There's, Like, This Thin

**So Apparently, There's, Like, This "Thin Line" Between Love And Hate. Good Thing I Always Walk With My Lucky Eraser.**

******·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

I really didn't know much about love.

From what I'd heard, and even more from what I saw, it seemed to be some sappy happy airy feeling, this silly urge to hold and to kiss and to have. To want to be with someone, one someone, forever and ever (which is looking more and more like a fucking _long ass_ _time_, by the way), and wanting to do any and everything for that person.

Giving your all to them, doing things you hate to make them happy. Knowing that they could hurt you at your most vulnerable time, and sticking around anyway.

Sounded a lot more like crappy servitude to me.

There was no way in hell that I was gonna go offering myself up to my _mortal freaking enemy_ just because my stupid werewolf hormones had made a seriously messed-up mistake.

No. Way. In Hell. That was all I needed (and wanted) to know.

On the other hand, (thankfully?) I knew a bit more about hate. I'd felt it- that rage, that anger, that urge to hit and hurt. I enjoyed hate because it was something to feel. When I was dead to me and dying to the world, hate was there for me. It was something passionate, and it was something that made me feel alive again, and after Bella had gone back to leech boy a couple months back, _man,_ did I ever need that.

Leech boy. _Edward_. He must wonder, reading my mind with his little parasity "gifts"- how could I hate him so much? _How_? He was too _perfect_ to be hated! And I barely knew him. I didn't, really.

But Edward hadn't seen Bella, hadn't seen what he'd _done_ to her, how she was so caught up in her misery, so _sprung_, that she couldn't even begin to fathom my love for her.

I would have done anything for her. _Anything_. To get her, to keep her. Huh- there was that _love_ thing again.

But Bella? All she wanted was _him_.

I could have been lying there in flames, burning alive with my desire for her, and if Eddie had showed up, Bella would have told him to keep a safe distance from the fire, lest he smudge his _cashmere blazer_.

And now I wanted him too.

Can _you _spot the odd one out?

It wasn't fair. Was not fair. Fucking _unjust_. There was no God up there, and if there was, he seriously needed to work on his communication skills.

**·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

I figured, like any sensible boy my age would, that any person I had rationally disliked (and for a damn good while as well) was my enemy, and should stay my enemy. Not my friend, certainly not my lover, and definitely not my Imprint.

I was sure the pack shared my mentality.

How was I so sure?

I could hear them.

**I need you to do something for me, Jake**, Sam announced, and the pack mind quieted as everyone awaited the inevitable command.

**Don't say that as if I have a choice in the matter, Sam**, I replied wearily, putting a voice to general thought.

**Please don't be difficult.** Sam let out a tired huff. And then, **You need to see Edward.**

_What?_

**Fuck that**, I exclaimed, springing to my paws in surprise. **No fucking **_**way**_**.**

**Watch your mouth, Black**, Leah snarled, twitching her tail in Seth's direction. **You're bad enough of an influence as it is.**

I rolled my eyes at her. **I'm as much of an influence as anyone else here. Trust me, Leah- your worry is in vain; your little **_**Sethy-poo **_**is already as dirty as the rest of us.**

**Speak for your fucking self, you leech lover**, muttered Paul.

I winced involuntarily, tail dropping low, and Seth jumped to my defense. **Hey, that's not nice.**

**Seth**, Leah warned, but he shook his shaggy sandy head angrily.

**No, Leah, it's true. You guys need to cut Jake some slack.**

Sam cut off the loud burble of immediate protest with a low growl. **Let him speak. **He turned his head back to Seth with a small nod.

**It's not his fault that all this is happeni-**

**Of **_**course**_** it's his fault, **seethed Jared, and I couldn't help but feel a sting of betrayal. He shot a sharp glance my way and flicked his tail in annoyance, in slight guilt. **Something's obviously **_**wrong**_** with him. Do you see any of the rest of us Imprinting on fucking **_**bloodsuckers**_**?**

Ouch much?

_**Jared! **_Leah screeched, but he rolled his eyes at her.

**Get the fuck**_** over**_** it, Leah, **grumbled Quil.** Seth's a big boy now. Seth- go ahead, dude.**

Seth wagged his tail appreciatively in Quil's direction. **Thanks, man. **He turned back to the pack, plopping down on his haunches. **What I'm basically saying is that Jake, like any of the rest of us, **_**Paul and Jared**_**, had no choice in his Imprinting. He didn't purposely do it. We can't blame him for something he had no control over.**

What a guy. I smiled best I could at him, sure that my wolfy eyes were glowing with gratitude. **Thanks, man. That"s exactly it. **I looked at the others. **You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to want Edward fucking Cullen to want me?**

Collin and Brady began to snort, but stopped quickly after a small unexpected growl from Embry.

I sighed. **Look, guys- I'm sorry. I really am. And maybe Paul and Jared are right- maybe I am fucked up. **Seth whined sadly. **No, Seth, really. I don't know what's wrong with me. I've thought about this so much. . . I just. Don't know what to do anymore. I would've ran away forever if Sam hadn't caught up to me.**

No one said anything for a while. My words seemed to weigh down heavily in everyone's minds. Then Sam Showed us a memory of me collapsing less than two hours before when he'd found me.

**Jesus, Jake,** Quil muttered. **What are you doing to yourself?**

There were murmurs of assent, and Sam stepped forward. **This is what happens when you****'****re separate from your Imprint for too long. They are your **_**lifeline**_**. Your everything. **_**Your very reason for existing**_**.**

His words stung me like slaps in the face. The nausea in my stomach suddenly had nothing to do with my illness.

**I hate to tell you this, Jake, but you need to hear it. **His wise eyes bored into mine from the middle of the loose circle, soft and regretful and so terribly sorrowful. And his next words explained why.

**If you do not make prolonged contact with your Edward Cullen soon, then it is inevitable. **

I held my breath and closed my eyes.

**You will **_**die**_**.**

**·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

I went with Seth to go see him.

It was late Saturday afternoon- the dappled sunlight warmed my fur gently as we ran through the forest, the soft, damp earth cool against my paws. The breeze caressed my speeding form, familiar, loving like a long-lost lover's touch. I breathed deeply, my eager nose picking up every scent in the air. God, I'd missed this.

Seth laughed out a bark and nudged me affectionately as he sped up. **It's missed you too, Jake.** And what he didn't need to say- and so have I.

Seth abruptly changed direction, heading north, and I followed without question. He knew where he was going. How Seth and _Edward_ - I winced - had managed to become _friends_ was beyond my knowledge and understanding, but it was _**a useful bond**__, _according to Sam. I'd had just about enough of bonds, to be honest.

**It was at the hospital**, Seth said, and I felt myself frowning. What was he talking about? What hospital?

**Edward. That's where we met.**

**Oh**. Right.

**At the hospital?** I asked as we leapt easily over a small stream and continued running seamlessly. I scanned my head for any such incidents, and found nothing, which worried me slightly. **Seth, when were you at the hospital?**

**About two weeks before the first time I phased, **he replied. **Right when the-**

**Fevers started.**

**Yeah.**

I frowned. **You would've been just heating up. Who was your doctor? How did you manage to explain it? Why didn't I know about this befo-?**

**Chill, Jake! **Seth exclaimed with a barking laugh. **It was Carlisle. The moment he realised what was going on, he and Edward got me out of there, pronto.**

**Carlisle?** I asked, confused. **You mean, Dr. Cullen?**

**Uh huh!** Seth chirped happily, and he seemed to find nothing wrong with that confirmation. He was on a first-name basis with the Head Leech? No wonder he was so comfortable around them. Somehow, that didn't make me feel any better.

As if on cue, Seth began to slow down his trot, picking his path more carefully. **We****'****re almost there, **he said in reply to my thoughts. **Prepare yourself.**

I swallowed as butterflies exploded into life in my stomach, throwing themselves wildly against my ribcage.

And all too soon, I smelt their sweetness, so distinctly _leech_ that my hair stood on end. Adrenaline began to tingle at my glands.

Then a new scent stopped me. I froze, my nose twitching in the air. It was a bloodsucker, yeah. And it was familiar... but changed, somehow. It was _his, _I realised. His, but changed. New. Different. _Good_.

I struggled against the near-overwhelming desire to hump the nearest log.

**Stay here a second, **Seth ordered, and I slowed down all too eagerly. He looked over his shoulder at me, as if something had just occurred to him. **Don****'****t run away, Jake. I mean it.**

I laughed, but the sound had no humor, and it caught in my throat, scratching uncomfortably. **I****'****ll try to resist the urge, **I replied, but Seth didn't laugh back.

**·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

I tried to stay away.

Really, I did.

But after that first visit, I found it was pretty much damn impossible.

We'd never really "talked" since that first time I'd been to see him with Seth. These days, I took what I could.

My wolf still wasn't responding positively to the lack of his presence. I was okay, though, doing well enough from seeing small glimpses of him, sniffing his scent in the forests, hearing him as we cursed each other from long-ranges.

I wanted to believe I was okay. That it really was enough. That I didn't really have to act on the fact that I was irreversibly in love with him.

I knew otherwise.

I wasn't paying attention that day. Ambling around aimlessly, half-heartedly searching for a particularly strong whiff of his scent to keep me going for the next few days. I snorted as the thought came to mind. Fucking drug addict.

I was so distracted that I didn't notice him until it was too late.

"...Jacob?"

I was on alert instantly, eyes widening, ears sharpening, nostrils flaring instinctively. His scent invaded my head, swirled around me, messed with my thought process.

Then he was there, eerily pale in the fading evening light, glowing against the growing darkness of the forest. My fur stood up on end as our eyes locked, and I fought to stay in wolf form, where I was safer, stronger.

"Jacob," he breathed, messing with my head as he moved closer, and I backed up rapidly.

**Don't touch me, Cullen, **I ground out.** Don't you dare.**

He rolled his eyes as he was wont to do, crossed his arms across his chest in mock obedience, in an attempt to placate me. "I wasn't going to, but I didn't come here to argue with you."

My eyes narrowed as words began gearing up in an automatic retort, but he cut me off before I could reply.

"How _are _you, Jacob?"

I blinked, surprised. **I- what?**

Genuine concern shone in his golden eyes. "How are you doing? I mean…" He trailed off, unusually ineloquent.

I shook off the immediate hope that he might actually care. **I'm, um- fine. Peachy. **My lie was pathetically transparent, but I was thrown off, distracted. **Sorry, but uh- where exactly are you going with this?**

He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face and into his hair. "Forgive me for trying, Jacob. I-" He paused, glancing away. "I've been… _thinking_ about some things."

I snorted. **Didn't know you were capable.**

His lips twitched, but he maintained his serious demeanor as he met my gaze again. I shivered.

"Would you mind phasing, Jacob? I'd like to have this conversation face-to-face."

I bristled. **We are face-to-face, you moron. I don't think so.**

"Jacob," he said, pleading, and my throat went dry. "Please."

My mind stuttered dumbly and my stinging remark stayed firmly lodged somewhere between my brain and my mind. **Okay,** I said quietly instead, and I instantly hated my weakness.

In a few seconds, I was naked and as human as I could be in front of him, and his gaze left trails of fire in its wake as it lingered on my body. I cleared my throat with slight difficulty. "Eyes up here, Cullen."

He almost blushed. Then, "I want to help you."

Help me? Help me? Just seeing him and knowing I would have to leave him soon enough was already putting me in more pain than he'd ever know. "And you were planning on doing this _how_ exactly?"

In milliseconds, he was in front of me, startling me into movement with his proximity. "I think you know," he murmured, and I swallowed convulsively, turning away to catch my breath, to slow my racing heart.

He moved closer again, his breath cool against the nape of my neck. "I want to take care of you, Jacob."

A soft sigh escaped my lips before I could help it. _God_. He knew exactly what I needed to fucking hear. It was driving me _crazy_.

And then the rage hit. How _dare_ he? How _dare _he fucking _play_ with me like this? He knew what he was doing to me. He _knew_ how much it would physically hurt me to leave him. After all those fights, after all that talk- he was _giving in_? He was _confessing_? _Fuck_ if I was gonna just fall into his arms like some goddamn damsel-in-distress.

"Jake," Edward whispered, and I whipped around to glare at him ferociously.

"Don't fucking call me that," I spat. "You're not Bella, and you're not my Dad, and you're not my brother or Leah or Embry." I made the distinction far too clear, but I hoped he'd be too distracted by my words to notice. "I don't care about you-" Liar. "-and you only care about Bella." And it's killing me.

"I can hear your thoughts, you know," he murmured quietly, and oh fuck, bring on the goddamn guilt.

"Stay the fuck out of my head as well," I muttered, slightly less venomously, and I let out a sigh as the anger drained unexpectedly from my body, leaving me exhausted and empty, a near-lifeless shell. I wobbled on my feet, the rapidly-changing emotions devouring my energy, and I was in Edward's arms before I even realised I was falling.

"Let m- Carlisle take care of you," he whispered urgently as I struggled feebly in his sturdy embrace. He lowered us to the floor, and I smacked away his hand as he tried to smooth back my damp hair. "He can try and figure something out." And then he sighed, looking so distressed, so despairing, that something inside me gave a painful pang. "This is because of me. This is my fault." His eyes closed, and his red mouth thinned in suppressed anger. "Pride. The only thing that kept me away from you. I have far too much of it."

His eyes flashed open again, smouldering with his ferocity, and I felt my breath hitch, my pulse speed up rapidly. I opened my mouth to say something, but I found there was something stuck inconveniently in my drying throat.

"I'm taking you to Carlisle," he said again, firmly, and lifted me, braced me against his cold, hard chest. I wriggled a bit in protest, mumbled feeble curses against his collarbone, but he ignored me as he sped quickly toward the house.

"I'll take care of you, Jacob," he whispered.

And for the first time in anything to do with Edward, I couldn't really find it in myself to object.

**·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

* * *

**A/N: FINA-FUCKING-LY!**

**Holy CRAP that took forever. Jeez.**

**Hello? ::calls out into the darkness:: Anyone still there?**

**Voila (: And I AM sorry that I kept you waiting. It's not fair of me to put something up (even if it's for my personal development) and leave you hanging.**

**But I'm not abandoning this story, no matter how long it takes me to finish it. :D**

**A lot in my life has changed, and I'm adjusting. Slowly but surely (:**

**Hope you enjoyed the recs from last chapter!**

**&nd YEAH! Lemme know whatchu thinkin' bout this one, shawties ;)**

**Until next time!**

**xx**

**-I.D.**


	5. What's That I Smell? Heartbreak?

** What's That I Smell? Heartbreak?**

**********·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

"Sam?"

He looked up lethargically from where he'd been running his hand absentmindedly through Quil's short hair, attempting to break free from the sleepy, lazy haze of the late afternoon. "Hmm?"

"Can I ask you something?"

He didn't answer, just leaned back into the huge root-chair of the even huger silk-cotton tree, resuming the slow, languid movement of his hand on Quil's peaceful head.

"How did you feel when you Imprinted?"

Seth perked up noticeably from his position against my chest, shifting on to his belly so that he could rest his [goddamn pointy] chin on me instead.

Collin turned to face us as well, and even Leah moved perceptibly in order to eavesdrop more clearly.

The sun was warm and gentle on my copper skin as we waited patiently for Sam's reply. I didn't push for an immediate answer- it wasn't exactly an easy question, and I knew _I _wouldn't have been able to reply instantly either.

"When we were younger," Sam started suddenly, "we used to tend the horses after school. Do you… do you remember that day when Wandering Star gave birth to her first foals?"

I nodded. "The twins with the white-socked–"

"–hooves," he finished, "Yes. You remember."

I nodded again, slower, not really sure where he was going with this.

"Those were the first newborns we'd ever tended by ourselves, just us younger kids. And in our excitement, we forgot to take the cattle out of the grazing pasture."

The memory came back sharper then, the late afternoon light on a day in the middle of spring, the scent of newly blossoming flora in that April air. "Star was making a shitload of noise," I recalled, nostalgia creeping through my veins. "We thought she was going to die."

Sam didn't reply to that statement, instead going on with the story. "The first foal came out, black and beautiful and covered in blood, and he stumbled around on his unsteady feet until he recognized his mother," he continued, his voice light with wonder. "It was the most amazing thing we'd ever seen."

He was quiet again for some time, contemplative as he tended to be. The movement of his fingers through Quil's hair slowed further until it completely stopped. I watched Quil remain still for a few moments before his face creased slightly in a scowl, missing the soothing motion. He shifted perceptibly, bumping his head against Sam's hand, desiring attention as always. Our leader came out of his reverie, blinking and flexing the digits at length before his fingers sought out the silky strands and resumed their previous action. Quil's lips twitched in silent satisfaction.

"When the second foal came out," Sam began again, "none of us were really paying attention. We were so fascinated by the first one trying to find his legs that we didn't notice the cattle moving closer to the birthing."

Sam sighed, looking off into the distance. "He tried to get to his feet like the other one, but he didn't turn around to face his mother before his eyes opened. The first thing he saw was that brown cow."

Collin sucked in a breath of air as the implications of Sam's last statement unfolded in his mind. My eyes shuttered as I remembered how the story ended.

"He completely thought that the cow was his mother. Star couldn't do anything about it. The cow couldn't do anything about it. And there was no way any of it could have been made better."

I felt cold despite the warmth of the sun, a chill spreading down my limbs, my eyes finding Sam's as he came to the end of his story.

"That's how Imprinting felt to me. Like I had just been born, and like Emily was the first thing I'd seen. She was suddenly all I needed; the most important detail of my life." He shook his head slowly. "I didn't want it that way. I'd had plans for me. For us." He'd looked away from me, I noticed, his eyes fixed on Leah. "But there was no choice in it."

I felt like I needed to say something, but my mind was blocked up, my throat lodged with emotion for my Alpha. I was suddenly so sorry for him. His sadness was painfully clear; I could tell that the others felt the same by the way their focus had fallen on him.

"No choice," Sam repeated as his gaze lowered. "No matter how hard you try, nothing else seems to matter."

Leah suddenly sprang into action, leaping up and running toward the forest. The sun reflected off the wet streaks on her face as she pulled off her t-shirt and flung it to the side, unable to control her phase long enough to take off her shorts. The strips of khaki fluttered in her wake as the grey wolf bounded twice and disappeared into the dense brush.

Sam let out a long sigh, sorrow flickering in his eyes.

I looked away, unsettled. Thinking about it, Leah had really gotten the short end of the stick. I'd heard the story before, seen it in her mind countless times, but Sam's full side of it had always been a bit blurry. I figured it pretty much sucked for her to know that he had so much love for her, love that had been transformed and funnelled into a relationship with a person that had supposedly been her best friend, a relationship that was rubbed in her face every fucking day. Shit. What a crappy situation.

I wondered if my [very low] potential relationship with leech boy could possibly hurt anyone as badly as that. I'd been there, in that place. Felt the pain of that rejection. I couldn't imagine causing that hurt to someone else.

But then.. I was already doing it, wasn't I?

******·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

"You wanna watch a movie or something?"

When we'd been… "kind-of-but-not-really-together", Embry and I spent a lot of time chilling by each other's houses. My dad had a pretty good idea what was going on with us pack mates, but I guess Embry's mom was just really glad that he finally had friends who seemed to accept him completely, though I was pretty sure she thought we were a bad influence. Em was grounded pretty much for life it seemed, because he snuck out to meet with the pack and his mom would check his room night after night and find it empty. She didn't know about him being a wolf, and he was willing to make the sacrifice to keep our burden a secret.

She tolerated Quil and I well enough to let us crash at the house during the day, but I could tell she wished he'd made better behaved friends.

Embry's mom was in and out of the house a lot during the day, working as a photographer on the days she didn't have a shift as a cashier at the tourist souvenir shop down at the beach. She headed out to shoot and came back to edit her images in the small studio she had upstairs. She would smile tightly as she went past, more than likely pretending not to take notice of our flushed faces and dishevelled appearances, her dark hair trailing behind her as she breezed by like a peaceful wind.

She was pretty hot, actually.

"Jake?" Embry startled me out of my naughty thoughts. He raised an eyebrow, waving the DVD in his hand. "Movie?"

I smirked, stretching out on his couch. "If by movie, you secretly mean make-out, then sure."

He rolled his eyes as he turned to turn on the television and set-up the player, shaking his head as he picked up the remote and flopped onto the couch between my legs. "And here I was, giving you the benefit of the doubt, thinking you might be pondering something other than sex."

"You know you like it," I teased, kissing the side of his neck as I tucked his long limbs between mine. "What are we watching?"

"Catch Me If You Can," Embry replied, aiming at nonchalance, but I picked up the pathetically-disguised excitement in his tone. He loved these complex criminal movies. He was undeniably the nerd of the pack. "Don't even try to complain. I sat through that ridiculous MacGruber shit last week. That was fucking _torture_."

I snorted loudly as the movie started, stirring up the feathery hairs at the nape of Embry's neck. "If I remember correctly, _somebody_ had ginger ale coming out of his nose."

"I told you, I _choked_!" he insisted, but I just snickered, and he rolled his eyes again, elbowing me hard in my side. I made a sound of protest, but I wasn't really in the mood to fight back, so I took the abuse like the whipped bitch I was, settling down as the movie started.

I was proud of how long I lasted. Honestly.

But Embry was pressed up all long and lean and warm between my legs, and who could resist that? I mean, Leonardo DiCaprio was hot, but after putting up a valiant effort against Embry's faint, pleased sounds of satisfaction [_every time_ he figured something out before the characters did – which was often, believe me] I got, well, restless. And more than just vaguely irritated by the amount of attention Embry was paying to the screen and not to me.

Yeah, I was a selfish [not-so-] little wolf.

"Em," I mumbled petulantly, but he shushed me, eyes fixed avidly on the screen. Mildly put out, my selfishness manifested itself. I let my hand drift from around his waist down to his hip, moving it slowly up and down. Up and down and up and down until my thumb "accidentally" slipped beneath the hem of his tee and tickled the sensitive skin in the small of his back.

"Ja_cob_," he grumbled distractedly with a slight shiver, smacking at my adventurous hand. Less than a second later his eyes were again riveted on the screen, following DiCaprio as his character put together yet another creative alias.

I gave him another moment to settle down and then resumed the motion, increasing the pressure in small increments until I was sure he couldn't possibly be ignoring me.

He held out surprisingly well, but a few tense minutes later, Embry let out a tired sigh. "Jake," he said, with a tightly tolerating tone. "How do you expect me to concentrate on the movie with you molesting me like that?"

"Who said anything about the movie?" I purred slyly, sliding a hand up his chest and rubbing at his right nipple through the soft fabric of his tee. He sucked in air sharply, but his tone was annoyed when he said, "Jake, chill out."

I smirked behind him. Pissed-off Embry I could totally work with.

I let him settle again, waiting patiently as the movie came to its climax, determined to time my next move perfectly. As soon as the cop burst through DiCaprio's hide-out, my hands clapped down on Embry's ass, _hard_, squeezing the tight, warm flesh with incorrigible enthusiasm.

The simultaneous slaps reverberated soundly in the suddenly quiet room, the low noise of the television fading into the background. Embry went very very still. And then I just couldn't help it- I dissolved into cackling laughter.

With a low growl, he smacked my hands away from his body, and I smothered my amused sniggers as best as I could as tears gathered in the corners of my eyes, ready with my apology, but his head snapped around, fixing me with his smouldering gaze and my throat closed up. I blinked rapidly, my mirth spirited away, and a second later I was pinned to the soft cushions, Embry straddling my lap. A sudden eager groan slipped involuntarily from my throat; Embry flashed me a nasty smile and attacked there first - wet heat and twisting tongue and _teeth_ sinking into my all-too-pliant flesh. I arched up against him with another throaty noise and his lips slid up from my neck to the curve of my jaw, sliding over my chin, and finally, finally, to my mouth.

Embry's darting tongue teased my lips, seeming to coax mine to come out and play. His fingers tightened on my shoulders, betraying the fact that he was still pretty pissed off, so I acquiesced to the demand and returned the kiss, trying to placate him. Angry Embry turned me on like crazy; I was so hard, and I could feel my breath quickening by the second.

Embry wasn't weak by a far stretch, and his grip on my shoulders was bruising. Literally. But gradually, he started loosening up, pressing himself down into me, rolling his sexy hips down into mine and making me moan like a deprived addict. I knew he liked me like this; his lips curved tellingly against my lower lip as he pulled it into his mouth.

Embry detached himself from my face with a wet smack, leaning away to wrestle his tee shirt over his head and toss it on the couch behind us, and I reached up, letting my hands roam over his strong, muscled chest. My thumbs traced his quivering abs and my fingers settled on the curve of his narrow waist as I tugged him back down to me.

We made out like mad animals on that couch, our lips sealed like we didn't need anything except each other to survive. It was crazy. _I_ was crazy. About him, about this. His ability to get me totally turned on in the space of a few minutes was insane. Embry's hands seemed to touch me everywhere, on my face and in my hair and on my neck and up my shirt, flicking across my nipples in movements that made me jerk uncontrollably, his nails scratching up my back. My hands weren't much better, and then they made their way down under.

"Embry?" I asked breathlessly against his addictive mouth, my fingers over the hot bulge in his cargo pants, the tips pressed against cool metal of his zip. Our eyes met, darkened and dilated with arousal. We had never gone further than this before, but we were hot and excited and I was totally ready to take it to the next stage. The hard heat of him beneath my hand was driving me insane; my mouth went dry at the thought of his dick in my hand.

"Yeah," he whispered back, his voice sure. His lips bent down to capture mine, soft and confident, and I felt his own fingers tangling in my hair. Grounding himself. "Touch me."

I groaned loudly as his low voice sent a shiver down my spine, pressed myself up desperately into his mouth again before we both leaned back to watch my hand's progress. I swallowed audibly, my breathing sounding loud and harsh in my ears. Embry's was warm puffs against my chin, my neck. I pulled it down slowly.

The sound of the zipper seemed extra loud in the otherwise silent room; I could hear each tooth separating as my enhanced senses focused on the sound, the metallic clicks vibrating through my shaking fingers. I licked my lips, tugging the rough fabric apart, and slid my hand beneath the fold to wrap around his cock.

The front door crashed open, and Em and I leapt apart with simultaneous obscene exclamations_, _taking the ten seconds it would take Embry's mom to reach the living room to quickly make ourselves look as normal as possible. Embry struggled with his shirt before simply shoving it under his ass and zipping up his fly with some apparent difficulty, having two last seconds to fiddle uselessly with his ruffled hair. I straightened up quickly, wiping the excess moisture off my mouth and tugging my shirt down from where Embry's questing hands had shoved it up, pulling my legs to my chest with a slight wince to hide my noticeable erection and willing my face to look normal.

No sooner had I rested my arm on the side of the arm of the couch in what I hoped desperately looked like a nonchalant and natural pose than Mos. Call came into the room, flashing us a quick smile and a "Hi, boys," as she turned to up the stairs. I was about to let out an exhale of relief when she slowed down, a slight frown on her face as her hand touched the banister.

"Is this the new thing now?" she asked, sounding puzzled as she looked between Em and me. We exchanged a stricken glance. Ms Call gestured at the television. "Watching credits?"

Our heads swivelled to the screen, where indeed, there was the slow white scroll of words against the black background. We looked at each other again, lost for words.

"We were just talking about– ," I blurted, at the same time that Embry announced, "There's a bit at the end that–"

We stopped, and Embry's mom raised an eyebrow, waiting.

I nodded at Embry to talk, because my palms were sweating and his explanation sounded a hell lot more plausible than mine. "There's a scene," he said, swallowing hard, "at the end of the credits that you don't see unless you wait. It's really funny, and I just wanted to show Jake because.."

He trailed off, but Mama Call seemed placated enough, and after a moment, she shrugged. "Whatever you guys like, I guess," she mumbled, smiling a bit bemusedly, but she took the flimsy hook and swam. "I'm gonna go get some work done. Behave, boys."

We nodded lamely, but as soon as she was gone, we melted into the couch with twin sighs of relief.

"Jesus," Em muttered, sometime later, his voice frail. "_That_ could've been bad."

I groaned. "Understatement of the fucking _century_."

******·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

Seth trotted out into the clearing, and I followed behind him, my head lowered as I pointedly avoided Cullen's gaze. I knew he was standing there, could smell his sweet scent wafting toward me in the steady breeze. My heart beat above its normal rate as Seth led me forward; I picked up the image of Cullen in my pack brother's mind before I looked up, unnaturally still in his tense stance, hands clasped to his front. He gave Seth a tight smile of gratitude, and Seth returned the gesture, shooting back an _**Anytime, Edward**_ through the pack link.

The small sandy wolf turned to face me then, nudging my lowered muzzle affectionately. **It's okay, Jake. C'mon, chin up. **I kept my head down stubbornly. **I get nervous when I talk to girls I like, too. **_That_ got my head snapping up fast. **Dammit, Seth, shut the fuck **_**up**_**, **I growled loudly, feeling my ears flattening against my head, and I swear, my fur darkening in embarrassment. Cullen let out an unintelligible sound, and Seth just sauntered away with a distinctly amused bark.

I concentrated on the sound of his footfalls against the soft grass of the clearing to distract me from the dissipating concentration of his scent and the abundance of Cullen's goddamn aphrodisiac, determined to have a completely clear head. I continued to remain quiet until he was out of earshot, realizing a second later with a tiny annoyed huff that that he would hear everything that went on regardless.

"Fascinating," his voice said quietly, startling me.

Jeez. I'd forgotten how his voice sounded. Like recorded perfection. I raised my head quickly, letting my gaze rake up his frame with a bit of guilty indulgence, and then looked away before I reached his face, focusing instead on a point above his shoulder.

_**What**_**? **I managed to snap, _quite rudely_, I thought to myself with pride, as I heard the seemingly random statement leave his lips. Fascinating?

"Your pack link," he elaborated, still sounding thoughtful. "The way it works is incredible. Carlisle will be so interested in that," he mumbled, mostly to himself, and I suppressed a creeped-out shudder. Great. I'd Imprinted on a certified weirdo.

I let out a resigned sigh, and decided I had wasted enough time. So I straightened my posture, set my shoulders back and quickly flicked my eyes over to meet his golden gaze. I battled the shock that went through me defiantly, refusing to let my stupid-ass wolf take hold of my emotions and go fucking love-sick schoolgirl – or rather full servitude/_I'll-love-you-forever-please-let-me-be-with-you _mode – on me in this defining moment. **Okay, leech, listen up. This is how it's gonna go down. **

Cullen snorted, his gentlemanly courtesies apparently gone with the wind. His hands released each other from their neat clasp and rose to settle comfortably on his chest. His red lips quirked. "This should be good."

I was momentarily thrown-off by how strange the casual pose looked on his frame, but the feeling flitted away as his words met my ears. **Whatever. **_Ass_hole. **You don't like me. I definitely don't like you. But for some wild, insane, **_**ridiculous**_** reason, my wolf chose **_**you**_** – I mean, seriously, of all the fucking people, **_**you**_**? – to, uh, to be my Imprint. **I stopped for a second to gauge his reaction, but he seemed to understand all this already. Good. **Let's not get into the dirty details. What it means is that… **I grimaced, sucking it up. **I'm gonna have to.. **_**see**_** you from time to time. Not often, or every day or something, please, don't get me wrong. But every, um. Every week or so, you can, you know, just stand there, and I'll stand here, and this whiny animal can get its sick pleasure from being in your company for a little bit. And then I get to leave and you can go home to your little bloodsucking family and everything will be hunky-dory.**

I smiled a little, pleased with myself. I thought it was quite ingenious, actually. The less I had to associate myself with Cullen, the better. But he raised an eyebrow at me, clearly unimpressed. "That's your brilliant plan?

**Well, yeah. **I tried not to get riled up. **You got anything better?**

"Jacob," he began, sounding like he was talking to a five-year old, "the only reason I agreed to meet you here today was as a favour to Seth. Understand now that I have no intention whatsoever to meet you alone again, and certainly not on any regularly scheduled tea dates."

**They're not– **I exhaled quickly, willing my temper down. **I don't want to do this anymore than you do, Cullen, believe me. Do you think I would've come here at all if it wasn't for Sam?**

"One would think that you would prefer to call me by my given name, since you're so desperately in love with me," he drawled, looking so completely haughty that I was consumed with the desire to just smash his pretty little face in, but just as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I was similarly overcome with an urge to beg forgiveness for my violent contemplations.

I felt my stomach twist in disgust at my roller-coaster emotions, my barely contained hate held down by this sickening adoration, the images flickering through my mind of me strangling him one second and kissing him the next. Bile rose in my throat, and I stumbled to my left as I choked, dry-heaving uselessly as my sight blurred.

"Please, mutt," he muttered, showing no compassion at all for my state, "have some dignity."

_Sorry, Sam. I can't do it; I just can't deal with his shit._

**Fuck this! **I half-snarled half-coughed as I recovered, holding back a soft whimper at my sore throat. It would heal soon enough. I turned tail and stalked huffily away, making a beeline for the forest boundary. Sam was probably being a total drama queen. I would find some way to survive without that bastard. There _had_ to be some way.

"Glad we've got this sorted," he called to my retreating back. "Say hello to Seth for me."

I scoffed disbelievingly. Was he _serious_? My paws kept moving but I felt their pace slow involuntarily, the mention of Seth jerking the recent memory of my pack brother's request to the fore my mind – _**Don't run away, Jake. I mean it. **_I rolled my eyes at my inability to break a stupid little promise, reeling with a growl of frustration. I reached him in a few angry bounds and shoved my heated, furry muzzle in his cold, disgusted face. **Look. Forget what I just said, whatever just happened. This isn't over, Cullen. **

"I think it is," he said coolly, his golden gaze narrowed. "Excuse me."

He turned to walk away and I cut in front of him again, paws crushing soft grass beneath my massive force. **Dude, wait. Stop.**

Cullen let out an exasperated sigh. "Do they not teach common courtesy down on the Reservation? Or is it just you? I believe I said, _excuse me_, Jaco-"

**Just... shut up for a fucking second**, I muttered, trying to calm myself down. **Your voice is annoying the shit out of me**. I wasn't lying. It was. But at the same time, each word he uttered slipped over and into my eardrums like velvet, like dark chocolate; sinfully smooth. It slid under my skin with ease and irritated me as violently as an acute allergic reaction, inflaming my passion in all its multiple factions.

He snorted at my request, but to my surprise, remained compliantly silent and waited. I breathed long and deep, shoving my anger and exasperation to one corner in waves until I was composed enough to shift.

I phased back, quickly turning to the side to tug up the khakis loosened at my ankle by the transformation. I didn't want my bits dangling in his face, but there was no way I was turning my back to him either. I didn't trust him as far as I could throw him, and though that may have been pretty far – perhaps if he was cooperating and not tryna stab me with his goddamn teeth – he'd easily run back as soon as his dainty toes touched the earth again.

I swallowed my pride as I faced him again. "Look, Cullen." I paused, hesitating. "Edward." The name felt foreign on my tongue. I felt my brow furrow slightly. "Whether I want to admit it to myself or not, you're my Imprint. And…" I forced the words out of my mouth before I could falter again. "AndIkindaneedyou."

His lips pursed. "Imprint or not, _Black_," he began, and I flinched involuntarily at the pointedly impersonal address. "I am sure you can manage to go on without any interference in your life on my part. Things can go back to the way they have always been."

"Nothing would make me happier, believe me," I said dryly, "but it doesn't work like that, apparently. You can't just pretend this never happened."

"Well, why ever not? I'll find it quite easy to go on with my existence, and you can go on with yours."

"That's just it, Cullen. I _don't_ go on with my life."

"Do not be melodramati–"

"I die, you stubborn fucker," I hissed, and that shut him up well and fast.

He looked stunned for a moment, but he blinked a few times and said in a quiet voice, "Well, then. I suppose it's better for everyone."

I felt a hard pang in my chest that had nothing to do with my wolf, and I felt myself take an involuntary step backward with a shocked, disbelieving laugh. "Did you really just say that?" I mumbled aloud, feeling dazed and slightly light-headed. I shook my head slowly, looking away. "Damn, you're cold." My voice sounded puny and weak.

"I apologise," he said, not sounding sorry at all, "but you will understand eventually that it is better this way–"

_What, when I'm fucking dead? _I didn't say it aloud, but it was obvious I'd thought it loud enough for him to hear by the resulting expression on his face. His next statement let out more about his conflicting emotions than ever.

"Jacob, I refuse to allow you to guilt me into this…" He gestured vaguely, his hands moving around with wild, uncoordinated movements, "this hopeless plight of yours. I will _not_ delude you into believing that there is any chance of you and I being in a relationship. _Ever_. My heart, if you remember correctly, belongs to Isabella Swan."

_I remember correctly, alright. Another happy ending you ripped mercilessly from my grasp._

"What heart? You mean the_ dead_ one?" I spat cruelly. "You're a _vampire_, Edward." His name slipped out of my mouth with smooth ease before I could help myself.

"A fact I am reminded of every goddamned moment of my existence," he thundered with equal bitterness, unable to mask the hopelessness leaking into his tone, "and exactly the reason why I should have _nothing_ to do with you."

"Screw you," I ground out weakly. But my mind-train followed the tracks he'd set. _He's right_, I thought dazedly, my thoughts echoing loud and abrasive in my head as I stared into his topaz gaze. _He's right. A vampire and a werewolf? Existing together.. in a healthy relationship? What the hell am I thinking? I'm insane. This is never going to work._

"I don't know what I thought coming here would do," I realised aloud, my voice quiet and cracking, my chest heaving as the decisiveness of his rejection hit me full-on.

"Neither did I," Edward replied, his voice and face once again becoming expressionless, as cold and hard and impenetrable as his icy skin, and with a curt, dismissing nod in my general direction, he turned and sped away. Leaving me. Alone.

I watched him go, unable to do anything else but remember how to breathe, to do anything else but try and catch the fragments of my twice-shattered heart, quickly turning just as dead as his.

******·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·**

* * *

******A/N: I'm so sorry. I hope you liked this. It's been sitting finished on my computer for at least a month now. Finally got around to it.  
Still sticking to this. Not gonna abandon.**

If anyone is confused by the format of this story, it vaguely follows this pattern- each chapter has three/four parts, at least one of which is a flashback, one revolves around Embry [/Bella, perhaps in following chapters], one revolves around Jake's inner reflections, and one which is Edward & Jake. They are NOT in chronological order. So what happened last chapter is not what follows in this one. This chapter is more easily linked with chapter 3. No, I'm not going to change the way its structured.

My nether regions are so fucking cold; my brother just knocked my glass of ice-cold water onto my lap. Boxers = soaked. -.-'' 

Otherwise, my summer's being going excelente. Hope everyone else can say the same :D  
Til next time, hotties. ;)

******xx**

******- I.D.**


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